New Fleischer Studios website

The family of Max Fleischer has set up an attractive new website devoted to the characters and legacy of Fleischer Studios — or at least the parts of it they still own the rights to. Max’s granddaughter, Ginny Mahoney, and Max’s lawyer Stanley Handeman are behind this site, which is clearly geared toward attracting potential licensees. Is there anything for the fans? Yes – a three page photo gallery of personal photos, clippings and studio memorabilia. More please!

It would be cool if some of those technical achievements get some detailed focus on that site. It surely must be tough to document it even lightly without mentioning something advancement they made back in those days.

I think they Fleischer characters and style are due for a come back. Their ultra clean lines, with thick and thin inking style could adapt very well to flash. Anime and anime influenced cartoons are popular now. That style is still heavliy influenced by Tezuka who made no secret of the heavy Fleischer influence in his own work. Betty Boop is still an iconic character. I could see it happening. I hope they do something with it.

Since this is a new site I’m sure they’ll be updating it as feedback comes in. With so much of the studio history lost after the Paramount takeover in the early 1940’s, I hope the folks involved with the site will be posting a lot of information that will clarify and correct many misconceptions that have accumulated over the years. Like who was and whatever became of GUS WICKIE?

David Breneman: I’ve no idea whose decision it was, but the “new” Betty design is a deliberate effort to capture elements of the way she was drawn in a couple of late-1931, early-1932 shorts. The eyes and figure match CHESS-NUTS, and the slight shadow under the nose matches certain scenes in MASK-A-RAID (watch at 1:18).

FleischerFan: The “new” Bimbo design is the original, insofar as the white version of Bimboâ€”starting in early 1930â€”actually preceded the black one. The “new” design matches the model in HIDE AND SEEK (1931) most closely.
(Being anal, I have to note that the white Bimbo was only used with Betty a handful of timesâ€”so it’s unusual to see the pairing today.)

Stephen DeStefano

With regards to the models of Betty and Bimbo, I’d like to weigh in here, cuz I’m the one that drew them for King Features licensing department several years ago.
And David Gerstein is right, they were based on a specific, cruder look than the usual, better formed models from Betty’s later cartoons. King Features wanted a new style guide, something a little different from what they usually do, and decided they’d like to try going “retro”. If that makes sense. I don’t recall who chose what specific models to work from, but it was a deliberate choice. And I, like David, am anal, so I probably pointed out to King execs that there was no history between these different versions of Betty and Bimbo, respectively, but the choice was more aesthetic than historical. And, y’know, how often do you get to see the white faced Bimbo?
I did my best. They’re still probably off model, but then, few Fleischer cartoons stay on model for very long.